It’s that time of the Year
2016 is over!
Here comes 2017!
“I’m going to lose weight, take better care of my body”.
“Finally do all those jobs around the house”.
“Start saving money”!
“Catch up on my bills”!
These are just a few things we all say when the New Year is coming. This is also a prime opportunity for collection companies to start sending everyone their “Start the new year right” letters and calls trying to take your tax return money.
There is never enough time to discuss the legal and ethical thoughts (on both sides of the fence) on this topic but myself like I hope ALL credit companies should tell you not to pay collection company (Junk Debt Buyers).
NOW, let me point out that in most states the timeline for you where you can be sued is 4 years, however many states had ridiculous timelines ranging from 5-10 years where they can sue. (Find out and just move, that is a state that flat out doesn’t like its residence).
Is there a way to fight when a collection company files a lawsuit against you? Of course there is, can they even legally do it? EVEN if they have all the documents they are legally required to have. The issue is 99% of consumers have no clue how the legal system works in this matter and if you hire attorneys they will want a ton of money from you which makes it seem counterproductive.
And no one will pay an attorney the amount of money required to take a case all the way to the higher courts and odds are the collection company won’t either as if they lose the case now there is precedence that can be used by others across the country and destroy their industry which is in the hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars a year.
So that’s what the little guy has to deal with. So some things to know, an article published by the CFPB in 2014-15 showed debt buyers purchased junk/delinquent debts for 4-6 cents on the dollar.
Yet they try to collect the full amount from consumers or will be “generous” as they “want to help you”, and will offer a 50% discount off of the old delinquent debt they bought for 5% on the dollar.
Depending on your debt, you do the math on an account the original creditor wrote off the debt and got a tax benefit from and then either sold the debt or gave to a collection company to collect on.
How is this legal you ask? Just say thank you to your government and a special provision in the IRS tax code.
This is also the time people get their tax refund and look to clean their credit up in order to move forward in their lives to buy a house or a car or refinance each of them to save money, so here are a few things to think about. As the saying goes, if it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck….. It’s a duck.
What do I mean by that? The people you typically speak to and inquire about credit repair services are sales people. In this industry they are commission only sales people. Regardless of what they tell you. Isn’t it a smart thing to really not believe what a sales person tells you? You would be amazed and people I talk to tell me “that’s what the person told me” and then when I clarify “you mean the sales person” then it clicks in their head how they got scammed. Their job is to get you to pay them, that’s how they get paid, I will let you figure out the rest.
If it sounds to you that in order to make all your problems to go away all you have to do is to pay them then just run.
So then what do you do? Other than call me of course that’s why I’m an expert in credit education and credit repair services. What you need to do is ASK QUESTIONS and research the companies you are looking at giving your hard earned money to, does your conversation with them seem too good to be true? If they brag about their experience is there ANYTHING to back it up like 3rd party confirmation? I’m currently 47 years old and could claim I have been in this industry doing credit repair for over 20 years and the grey in my beard would make that a plausible story as “it sounds good”.
If the company tries to get you to sign up on the very first call that’s another red flag. I always tell people to give it some thought and crunch their numbers as I have been doing this for almost 12 years so if they need to get started in 2 months or 11 months I will still be here for them when they are ready.
That’s the end of this week’s blog/Wayne rant.
So while this blog was just to help guide you a bit towards figuring out what you need to look for when it comes to the new year’s goals there are so many little things that factor into this it can’t be put in one blog so feel free to give me a call or contact me my information is below and I can tell you what is the best direction for you to take is.
Yes believe it or not if I can’t help you I will provide you options on what’s best for you. =)
*** Want to learn more about how the credit system works? Buy my book for easy to understand concepts of how credit works and how lenders look at you contact me today to get it at:
or call us at 469-424-3031
